Upton, who has 34 years of industrial and corporate real estate experience, is taking over from Pamela Zoellner, a senior managing director who will head a new practice within industrial brokerage called Global Supply Chain. Upton is moving to the Ontario office from C&W's San Francisco office, where he has been heading Global Corporate Services for the firm.

In his new post, Upton will be heading "one of the major initiatives of Cushman & Wakefield," the company says. His career with C&W dates to 1983, when Upton assumed leadership of the firm's fledgling national industrial and high technology brokerage practice. During his first tenure leading industrial, from 1983 to 1992, revenues increased six-fold. Under his leadership of Global Corporate Services over the past 11 years, Cushman & Wakefield has grown to a client list of more than 200 companies, including such recent additions as DHL and General Electric.

Bruce Mosler, president of U.S. Operations for Cushman & Wakefield, says the new roles for Upton and Zoellner reflect the changing nature of Corporate America, which "increasingly demands strategic, rather than tactical thinking from its real estate service providers."